Video: Returning to work

Since the 1990s, governments have encouraged those who are unemployed back intowork through a variety employability and skills programmes. Our research looked at whether these programmes did what they were supposed todo, and identifies employers’ attitudes to taking on individuals with particular barriers towork (such as disabled people) who came through these programmes.

The UK and Denmark were compared for three reasons:

1. Both countries were at the forefront of implementing these programmes internationally
2. Both have very flexible labour markets
3. The UK and Denmark provide different institutional contexts. Denmark has a strong social partnership model involving employers and trade unions with government policy, something the UK hasn’t traditionally had.

This video explains:

• what employability and skills programmes are
• why research into employer perspectives was needed
• how employers view and engage with these programmes.

You can read more about this research in:

• The open access article - ‘Employers' recruitment of disadvantaged groups: exploring the effect of active labour market programme agencies as labour market intermediaries’